Big data is one thing, but what about the quality of that data?
Information governance (IG) professionals voiced concern about such
matters at the 2015 LegalTech held in early February in New York,
according to a report in Law Technology News. In an attempt to leverage
big data, many organizations are holding on to more information than
they may need. According to one panel of IG experts, almost 70% of
retained data is unnecessarily kept.

"We are living in a post-Sony, post-Snowden world. We are in
2015, the 'year of the data breach,'" said Jason Baron,
Esq., of counsel at Drinker Biddle and Reath. "If you secure the
borders, you are doing something that is necessary, but that is not
sufficient."

Jordan Lawrence's Marty Provins suggested organizations start
with their e-mail. "If an organization did nothing but get better
control over e-mail, they would be starting on a path to success,"
he said. "They tend to make arbitrary decisions over time limits on
saving e-mail; the secret to making something work is to understand how
they are using it, not having a one-size-fits-all model."

According to the panelists, some organizations are beginning to
wonder if a chief IG officer (CIGO) is a necessity or a luxury. Baron
said he could envision a scenario in which there was a need for a CIGO.

"I think the moment has come for one of two things,"
Baron said. "A designated head of info governance as a subfunction
of legal ... or a fully mature model where you have a C-suite person who
stands as a peer of the CIO of an organization."

This need could materialize soon if 2015 does indeed shape up to be
"the year of the data breach," as some have predicted.

"I think the job got a lot easier with the Sony Pictures
breach," said Gareth Evans, a partner at Gibson, Dunn, and
Crutcher. He added that data security is increasingly being addressed at
the board level.

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